Heart Trouble (EDITING)

A Stranger Who Is Not-so-Strange

~Layla's POV~

Please pause for a second so I can breathe. Those nine words stuck at the back of my throat, neither coming out or disappearing into the pile unsaid phrases while Hale walked in front of me. Whenever I'd open my mouth to say something, something to get his attention, I'd be mesmerized by his sculpted back and I would realize later on that I forgot what I was about to say, leaving my mouth in an awkward gaping pose. 

After awhile with the pattern repeating itself over and over again, my body could not take it anymore. I stopped in my tracks and swallowed in big gulps of air. When I realized what I have done, the London streets had swarmed around me. I freaked.

“Hale?” I asked into the air after I couldn't see any sight of him.

I dialed his number once I remembered I had his number and a phone. 

Ring. Ring.

Ring. Ring.

My mind began to form scenes where Quin, Colin, my family, and friends handed out sheets of paper with my picture and description with a missing person title in the streets of London. Billboards would have face plastered on them. I, while floating up in the sky, would be watching the whole spectacle in my ghostly dead form, regretting not looking both ways before I crossed the street. It lead to me getting run by a car in a very dark neighborhood. Yes, the future looked grim.

In the end, he did not pick up.

Frightened, suffocated, and on the brink of an all out panic attack. This combination of feelings rarely occurred to me but yet here I was plagued by all these emotions. My forehead and hair matted with sweat. It no longer resembled how it looked just moments before. Beyond all reasons, all had to do was walk back to the hotel, but, I was indeed standing in the mass of busy London citizens on a windy Tuesday morning. They carried on with their lives without sparing a glance at me.

In my otherwise logical and street smart self, I would have thought to ask for directions. But was it my hopeful heart that decided to put my trust into someone such as Hale Vadner who didn't really care about me as far I known? Why was it my thoughts revolved around someone so far away? I didn't know.

My feet shuffled from place to place. My head swerved from side to side. At times, my hand would reach into my pocket and pull my phone out to call someone but there was no luck there. Whenever I would call, it would result in the systematic rings and the voice mail box in the end. I wondered what they had to do to make themselves so busy.

After a couple more minutes of fidgeting and running my hands though my oily hair, I gave up. There was no way for me to catch sight of him. I trudged over to a small bench and sat down, exasperated. I stayed there in case Hale was searching for me.

By now, the chilly wind and I became very familiar with each other. When it blew, I raced my hands up and down my arms to try to warm myself up. I didn't dare to enter into the comfort and warmth of a nearby store because of my polite, paranoid, and crooked logic that I would have to buy something or else it would be rude to just stay there. Of course, being broke as I was, even the thought of purchasing something was simply outrageous.

I shivered uncontrollably after the new gust of air blew. I rubbed my hands together, hoping the friction would bring me some kind of heat. My iTouch kept me company the whole time as I waited. The stories I read on the device entertained me and put my mind off the fact I was stranded. 

The clock tower chimed at the stroke of 12. Two hours had already past.

"I guess I should go." I muttered to myself before I started to walk off into the crowd of people.